Men's basketball loses at Kent State

The Central Michigan men's basketball team lost Saturday night to the only Mid-American Conference team it has beaten this season.

CMU lost the regular-season finale with Kent State 83-75, due to poor shot selection and miscommunication offensively.

Sophomore pointguard Chris Fowler led all CMU scorers with 19 points, five steals and four rebounds.

"We come off of a game (against Northern Illinois) where we got out rebounded. We weren't going to let that happen again," CMU coach Keno Davis said. "Now we've got to figure out how to make it work with the limited resources we have inside. We hoped we would have a few more wins at this point."

The Chippewas shot selection improved in the second half as the men came out of the halftime break on a 13-2 run. A Blake Hibbitts 3-pointer gave CMU its first lead of the second half 41-39. Hibbitts hit four 3-pointers and scored 12 points in the loss.

Kent State's Derek Jackson scored six straight points to help the Golden Flashes reaffirm the lead following the CMU run. KSU used consistent jump shooting to keep the Chippewas out of the game and seal the victory .

Chris Ortiz led all KSU scorers with 17, including 10 points in the second half.

The Golden Flashes opened the game on a 7-0 run and the Chippewas struggled to keep up with the KSU for most of the second half. CMU shot 31 percent from the floor in the first half while Kent State shot better than 60 percent.

Fowler was the only Chippewa to score more than one basket in the first half, going 2-for-6.

It was CMU's third consecutive loss since topping KSU at McGuirk Arena, Feb. 5. The Chippewas will play at home for the first time in nearly two weeks when they host Ball State at 7 p.m. in Mount Pleasant.

"We really truly believe if we can get to the MAC tournament we may be able to stick around for a little while," Davis said. "We might surprise some people."